The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Aaron Wilson Discusses Laremy Tunsil Contract Negotiations

Episode Date: March 6, 2020

Texans Beat Writer for the Houston Chronicle, Aaron Wilson, joins Matt to discuss the Texans ongoing contract negotiations with Laremy Tunsil and what we may see from GM/Head Coach Bill O'Brien in Free Agency

The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790, where Rockets and Astros play and Real Texans Talk. Let's say how to our friend Aaron Wilson, Sports Talk 790, the Houston Chronicle. Aaron, a long time, no talk. First of all, congratulations on your upcoming nuptials. I'm great to hear that you found a special lady in your life. It makes us all very happy. Yeah, very excited. Yeah, Shannon is awesome.

And I got engaged right before Valentine's Day. I went to Austin and popped a question at the rooftop pool at the Weston Hotel there. We had a great time and really excited. Damn, you're romantic. I like it, Aaron. This is the side of you what we didn't know about. So congratulations. There were balloons or rose petals.

What? There was a big diamond. And I put it on the Instagram. I did all social media, all that good stuff. Good for you. First of all, firing of agents is not abnormal. It happens actually more often than I think it probably should. Have you heard any problems between Condon and Tunsel before this?

Well, Jimmy Sexton. Sexton, I'm sorry, not gone. Jimmy was his agent ever since his college days. He left, went to the Miami Dolphins and they had old gas masks incident. They had some damage control to do there. And yeah, Jimmy was involved with all that. and then did his rookie deal, and then they just didn't have a lot of contact. And, you know, recently, and Laramie has some other things he's interested in that he was looking for,

wasn't sure necessarily does he want an agent or does he want someone just to advise him on an agent? He talks a lot of agents. A lot of agents are trying to sign him, and he had some different ideas about what he was looking for in representation. and eventually, you know, even though CAA had met with the Texans twice once at the Conminor once in Houston, he decided to move on. But it's not just about his contract. He has some other interests involving fashion, you know, sort of off-field marketing, branding type of things that are of interest to him that are important to him. And he wasn't feeling it with CAA at the time, so he decided to move on. I'm told he's in no rush to hire a new agent, so that could possibly slow down any prospective contract negotiations.

And he still wants to make, you know, 19 and 20 million a year and be the highest paid tackle. So that's kind of where things stand with Laramie. And, you know, he's going to, you know, kind of try to have a normal offseason, you know, as much as possible. All right. So Ross and I are debating this the other day. Who has the leverage? Is it Laramie with one with he's you know he's the one that wants to get paid or is the Texans who've got him for at least one year and the theory could franchise him for two years after that. Where do you see the leverage in this situation?

I think that the leverage, you know, it kind of fluctuates, but he had leverage. And I think by this, he's kind of, you know, created the ripple effect where, you know, the Texans have to rethink things about, you know, who are we. negotiating with? How much do they ask for? Do we have a good relationship with this new agent? Whereas the CAA, they represent the coach, not Jimmy specifically, but, you know, the other branch of in Atlanta. So they have a close working relationship. So it depends. Who winds up hiring him, or are you dealing with a situation where Laramie negotiates his own deal, which has not been ruled out? And then he has advice where the Players Association and maybe a registered agent is doing it on a fee basis, helping him with it, field proposals, that type of thing.

Ultimately, I think most clarifies find once they dig into that, it's nothing that they really enjoy doing, and it means that you're going to have to hear, you know, whatever the team, if you think they're low-balling you or you don't like your offer. So, you know, we'll see. I mean, you know, again, this is a still free country left on check, and that's his right. If he wants something different, there's nothing stopping him from doing it. He filed the termination papers. I heard that he was unhappy.

That was as of my last day that I was at the Combine, which was Wednesday. I left on Thursday, well, left on Thursday, my last night there, and that was after the Texans had already had the meeting. So they, you know, I met with him, and then he moved on. Now, you know, he made it official. The termination papers hit the union, and they confirmed the firing. But, yeah, I think it just kind of pushes it further down the road where maybe the deal doesn't happen as fast. Visiting with Aaron Wilson on the NFL beat and the Texans beat from the Houston Chronicle here on Sports Talk 790. Before I let you run, because I've got to get going here, let me ask you, when this upcoming free agency periods comes up, who's going to do the heavy lifting on this?

Is this Bill O'Brien selling this? Is this Jack Easterbee? Is it a combination? Who's going to go in, beyond the dollars, sell the Houston Texans to prospective free agency? agents. Well, Bill O'Brien, yeah, he's head coach and general manager, and Bill does talk to agents. He talks to players. He's, you know, the boss. And he has lieutenants. He has Jack Easterby. They have a cap guy and Kevin Kravivage that replaced Chris Olson. But yeah, the buck stops with him. He's the guy. And, you know, when he's at the combine, he met directly with agents and he was, you know, he's heavily

involved and there's nothing that's going to happen without him signing off he's immersed in all the details and yeah there's some delegation he has a team of people to help him but yeah if you're asking who's going to be the point yeah it's him i mean there's other guys that might have initial but when things get serious yeah he's going to be rolling up his sleeves and involved in it all and behind the scenes directing what his other guys do like you know he reach out to him you talk to him this guy. And this is the off-season. This is the time for all that.

But it's similar to where, like, a Bill Belichick, you know, he's talking to Tom Brady. He's talking to agents. He's doing all that stuff, too. And he still cooks on the team when in Super Bowl. So it can't work. It's not like, and now he's not to play caller. So I think, you know, to answer your question, specifically, he would, with anything big, that would be him. But is he going to, like, you know, be the one thing.

you know, in a third, you know, year, this amount. And he'd sign off on anything. I mean, that's why they have a negotiator for a cap specialist in Kravivich, who has been there for a while. But he's just, you know, it's different. It's a new setup. And this is their first year running in under this setup. Because last year, Ryan Gain and Chris Olson ran points on the free agency with Bill

signing off on things and having his own, you know, opinions. They didn't have autonomy, but they have, you know, more reduced than anybody else does now. So now it's just, you know, it's the Bill O'Brien show, and he's got a bunch of guys that help him with stuff. But everything ultimately goes back to Bill. All right, I got 15 seconds. Give me Tom Brady's locale in 2020. What's your best guess? I think the Titans have a very good chance to get him because of the relationship with Mike Brable.

I think if they move on from Taney Hill, that would probably be the spot. And they've got the skill players that Brady would be interested in. It doesn't sound like the Patriots are doing anything aggressive to assuage Tom's concerns about the roster or make him feel as more than if he wants. I wouldn't rule them out, but they're going to have to obviously make up some ground here.

Reports are that Brady and Belichick, that conversation didn't go very well. Aaron, great stuff as always. Thank you, Frank. Congratulations again on the future nuptials, and we'll visit with you soon, my friend. Take care yourself. That is Aaron Wilson from the Houston Chronicle.